The present invention relates to a communication result notifying system which notifies the transmission result of repeated facsimile data or the process result of print data, received via a LAN, to the e-mail addresses of a facsimile transmission requesting node, a print requesting node and a manager node.
Popular is a system in which a printing machine and a facsimile machine are connected to a LAN (Local Area Network), and a personal computer connected to the LAN can request the printing machine and the facsimile machine to execute printing and facsimile transmission.
In this system, typically, the printing machine and facsimile machine execute and terminate respective processes requested by the personal computer. When out of paper, paper jam or the like occurs, an alarm message is displayed on a display section of the printing machine or the facsimile machine. There is a facsimile machine equipped with a function to provide a facsimile output (printout) of alarm information. A requester who has requested, through a personal computer, the printing machine or the facsimile machine to perform printing or facsimile transmission considers that the process has been terminated properly unless an alarm message is displayed on the display section.
FIG. 24 shows the network structure of a LAN to which a printing machine and a facsimile machine are connected, and FIG. 25 shows the functional blocks of a conventional printing machine. A printing machine 210, a personal computer 211 and a network connection type facsimile machine (hereinafter called xe2x80x9cNETFAXxe2x80x9d) 212 are connected on a LAN 213.
The printing machine 210 has a CPU 221 for performing the general control of the machine, a ROM 222 where a program is stored, a RAM 223 which the program uses as a work area, a printer section 224 which executes a printing process with a printer protocol of an LPD or the like, and a LAN interface section 225 which exchanges print data on the LAN.
The NETFAX 212 has a FAX section which executes transmission and reception processes on print facsimile data in place of the printer section 224. Hereinafter, an information processing terminal through which a requester requests the NETFAX or the printing machine to do facsimile transmission or a printing process is called a requesting node. The personal computer 211 becomes a requesting node.
The requesting node 211 makes a request on a printing process to the printing machine 210, and the printing machine 210 which has received the request acquires print data via the LAN 213 and prints it. Further, the requesting node 211 request the NETFAX 212 to execute facsimile transmission and send facsimile data via the LAN 213, and the NETFAX 212 sends the facsimile data by facsimile to another facsimile machine designated by the telephone number via a public telecommunication network (PSTN).
According to the above-described prior art, however, unless the requester directly goes over to where the NETFAX is located and checks its display section after the requesting node 211 has made a request of facsimile transmission to the NETFAX 212, it is not possible to know if the facsimile transmission has been terminated properly.
Even when a message indicative of abnormality is printed out from the NETFAX, there is a time lag from the point of the request of facsimile transmission to the point at which the message indicating abnormality is printed out and returned. Therefore, it is probable that the requester would not been informed of the event that facsimile transmission has not been made properly for a long time.
There is a case where facsimile transmission having been done should be reported to more than one supervisors besides the requester who has requested the facsimile transmission. In such a case, it would be troublesome to report the result of facsimile transmission to each supervisor or leave a memo describing the result of facsimile transmission to an absent supervisor.
The same inconvenience as would occur in the case of facsimile transmission also occurs in the case where the requesting node 211 makes a printing request to the printing machine 210.
In the case of a printing process, when the print data one has requested is not printed for a long time even with no alarm message displayed on the main body, even if it is a print queuing mode due to heavy queues, the status cannot be known unless it is checked by a queue check command. This requires a trouble of going over to the printer and checking it over and over again with intervals.
Further, since all abnormalities are not displayed on the display section, even when there is a result which one wants to know immediately though it is not displayed on the display section, he may not be able to find out it until the problem is overcome forcibly by reactivation or the like.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to overcome the conventional problems and provide a facsimile machine and a communication result notifying method that allow a NETFAX or a printing machine to promptly notify the process result of a facsimile transmission process or printing process requested via a LAN, to a requesting node or a manager node which has requested the notification of the process result, and that can make efficient the work of notifying the result of a process requested via a network.
According to this invention, a facsimile machine for transmitting facsimile data, received via a LAN from a requesting node, to a destination specified by the requesting node, by facsimile, comprises an acquisition section for acquiring facsimile data sent on the LAN from the requesting node from the LAN; an extraction section for obtaining an e-mail address of a notification destination node, to which a process result of facsimile transmission is to be notified, from the acquired facsimile data; a detection section for detecting a process result of a transmission process performed on the facsimile data; and a notification section for notifying the detected process result to the e-mail address of the notification destination node by e-mail.
According to this invention, a printing machine for printing print data, received via a LAN from a requesting node, comprises an acquisition section for acquiring print data sent on the LAN from the requesting node from the LAN; an extraction section for obtaining an e-mail address of a notification destination node, to which a process result of a printing process is to be notified, from the acquired print data; a detection section for detecting a process result of a printing process performed on the print data; and a notification section for notifying the detected process result to the e-mail address of the notification destination node by e-mail.
According to the thus constituted facsimile machine and printing machine, as a notification e-mail address can be identified from received data, the result can be notified by e-mail in both cases where the result of facsimile transmission or a printing process is normal and abnormal. The one who requests a transmission process or a printing process can know the result on the site. It is also possible to eliminate a wasteful work of going over to the facsimile machine or printing machine and checking it over and over again.
The facsimile machine according to this invention comprises an accumulation section for accumulating plural pieces of facsimile data acquired from the LAN; a table for storing e-mail addresses of notification destination nodes, extracted from the facsimile data, in association with the facsimile data as extraction sources; and a function for acquiring an e-mail address of a notification destination node associated with facsimile data whose process result has been detected, from the table and notifying it to the notification section.
The printing machine according to this invention comprises an accumulation section for accumulating plural pieces of print data acquired from the LAN; a table for storing e-mail addresses of notification destination nodes, extracted from the print data, in association with the print data as extraction sources; and a function for acquiring an e-mail address of a notification destination node associated with print data whose process result has been detected, from the table and notifying it to the notification section.
According to the thus constituted facsimile machine and printing machine, in the case where there are a plurality of requesters who request facsimile transmission or a printing process and there are plural pieces of data to be received, process results of individual data can individually be notified to notification e-mail addresses added to the respective data, so that a process requesting side can obtain only the result of the process it has requested. Further, one process requester can request a plurality of data processes and a file name can be notified in addition to the process result, so that it is possible to know which process has been terminated properly and which process is abnormal on the site.
The facsimile machine according to this invention comprises an extraction section for extracting process result items notifiable to the notification destination node from facsimile data obtained from the LAN; and an instruction section for, if an item matching with a detected process result is included in the process result items, instructing the notifying means to notify that process result to the notification destination node.
The printing machine according to this invention comprises an extraction section for extracting process result items notifiable to the notification destination node from print data obtained from the LAN; and an instruction section for, if an item matching with a detected process result is included in the process result items, instructing the notifying means to notify that process result to the notification destination node.
According to the thus constituted facsimile machine and printing machine, the type of result information which can ensure notification is identifiable from the received facsimile data or print data, in addition to a notification e-mail address, so that the result can be notified only when it matches with the result of the transmission process or printing process. A process requesting side can dynamically designate the type of result information which it wants to be notified upon occurrence.
In the case where the process result items extracted from the facsimile data include an item queued for transmission, when a facsimile transmission queue state is detected, the facsimile machine according to this invention notifies attribute information including the number of queues and a queue size to the e-mail address of the notification destination node immediately upon reception of facsimile data.
In the case where the process result items extracted from the print data include an item queued for printing, when a printing queue state is detected, the printing machine according to this invention notifies attribute information including the number of queues and a queue size to the e-mail address of the notification destination node immediately upon reception of print data.
According to the thus constituted facsimile machine and printing machine, when the type of notifiable result information affixed into facsimile data or print data matches with a process result as xe2x80x9cprint queuing,xe2x80x9d the xe2x80x9cprint queuingxe2x80x9d state and the number of queues and the queue size as its attribute information are notified to the notification e-mail address. Therefore, the process requesting side can understand the reason why proper termination is not notified and at the same time can roughly estimate how long it takes to execute the process and to notify the message of proper termination. This can eliminate a troublesome work of going over to the printer to check the state over and over again at proper timings, or checking the print queue state by a queue check command with intervals, when print data is not printed for a long time.
The facsimile machine according to this invention comprises a reception section for receiving an information via the LAN; an extraction section for extracting an e-mail address of a manager node from the received e-mail; a memory for storing the e-mail address of the manager node; and a notification section for notifying the detected process result to the e-mail address of the manager node by e-mail.
The printing machine according to this invention comprises a reception section for receiving an information via the LAN; an extraction section for extracting an e-mail address of a manager node from the received e-mail; a memory for storing the e-mail address of the manager node; and a notification section for notifying the detected process result to the e-mail address of the manager node by e-mail.
According to the thus constituted facsimile machine and printing machine, one or more manager notification e-mail addresses can be registered previously by e-mail, so that when, depending on the type of a process result, it is desirable to notify the result to a process requesting side and one or more managers, the result can be notified simultaneously. Further, it is possible to notify process results occurred to separate managers in accordance with the process results by associating manager notification e-mail addresses with notifiable result information affixed to data. Furthermore, since a plurality of manager notification e-mail addresses can be registered, one result information can be notified to a plurality of managers or plural pieces of result information can be notified to one manager. When a special result occurs, it becomes unnecessary to report it to each manager.